PRAYING T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R
CLEDDIE KEITH
© Copyright 2004 – Cleddie Keith All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the NASB, New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962,1963,1968,1971,1973,1975,1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked KJV, NIV, and AMP are from King James version, the New International Version, and the Amplified Bible, respectively. Emphasis within Scripture quotations is the author’s own. Please note that Destiny Image’s publishing style capitalizes certain pronouns in Scripture that refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and may differ from some Bible publishers’ styles. Take note that the name satan and related names are not capitalized. We choose not to acknowledge him, even to the point of violating grammatical rules. Destiny Image® Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 310 Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310 “Speaking to the Purposes of God for This Generation and for the Generations to Come” ISBN 0-7684-2249-3 For Worldwide Distribution Printed in the U.S.A. This book and all other Destiny Image, Revival Press, MercyPlace, Fresh Bread, Destiny Image Fiction, and Treasure House books are available at Christian bookstores and distributors worldwide. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 / 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
For a U.S. bookstore nearest you, call 1-800-722-6774. For more information on foreign distributors, call 717-532-3040. Or reach us on the Internet:
www.destinyimage.com
Dedication It is said, “You know a lot about a man by those who call him their friend.” This book is prayerfully dedicated to my friends. They have been used by God to enlarge my life. They know who they are and how important they are to me. Vernel Perry has defined by his life the true value of friendship. When I was young I asked God to give me lifetime friends to walk with me in ministry. Vernel was an answer to that prayer. He has been a, “Thy will be done in my life.”
Endorsement “Cleddie has done a wonderful job addressing the subject of prayer without being boring or religious. In reading this book you will gain practical insights and understanding. But more importantly you will find yourself drawn into his journey, sharing in his passion for God. Will you end up praying more? Yes, but this time out of delight and not mere duty.� Bill Johnson
Contents Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Chapter One Men Ought Always to Pray. . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Chapter Two The Power of Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Chapter Three Our Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chapter Four The Windows of Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter Five The Kingdom Just Kept on Coming . . . . 75 Chapter Six Thy Will Be Done . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Chapter Seven On Earth as It Is in Heaven: The Father Heart of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Chapter Eight Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will . . . 109 Chapter Nine Daily Prayer for Daily Bread . . . . . . . . . 119 Chapter Ten The Most Frequently Prayed Prayer . . . 133 Chapter Eleven Prayer for Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Chapter Twelve Let the Praise of the Lord Be in My Mouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
The Lord’s Prayer in the Ancient Aramaic language Avvon d-bish-maiya, nith-qaddash shim-mukh. Tih-teh mal-chootukh. Nih-weh çiw-yanukh: ei-chana d’bish-maiya: ap b’ar-ah. Haw lan lakh-ma d’soonqa-nan yoo-mana. O’shwooq lan kho-bein: ei-chana d’ap kh’nan shwiq-qan l’khaya-ween. Oo’la te-ellan l’niss-yoona: il-la paç-çan min beesha. Mid-til de-di-lukh hai mal-choota oo khai-la oo tush-bookh-ta l’alam al-mein. Aa-meen.
9
Galilean transliteration of The Lord’s Prayer “Therefore, this is how you shall pray: ‘Our heavenly Father, hallowed is Your name. Your Kingdom is come. Your will is done, As in heaven so also on earth. Give us the bread for our daily need. And leave us serene, just as we also allowed others serenity. And do not pass us through trial, except separate us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory To the end of the universe, of all the universes.’” Amen!
Foreword Cleddie Keith is not only one of the great pastors of our time, but one who has a sense of history, particularly of the great prayer revivals - past and present. This valuable book gives a fresh approach to the greatest prayer pattern of all time, The Lord’s Prayer. This is a valuable tool that has the ability to ignite a fresh revival of prayer throughout the world. Pastor Cleddie is a man of prayer and has surrounded himself with people of prayer. I do not know any of his inner circle of friends that are not mighty prayer warriers themselves. Over the years, Pastor Keith has made it a point to know, personally, leaders of the prayer movement worldwide. This book not only presents the pattern of prayer taught by Jesus, but imparts a quest for revival that will come only when people pray. I love Pastor Cleddie Keith and deeply appreciate the mark he has left on me personally and, the thousands of 11
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R people with whom he has made contact in ministry around the world. This book is a winner. Dr. Bob Rodgers Sr. Pastor, Evangel World Prayer Center Louisville, Kentucky
12
Foreword Cleddie Keith, like other anointed men of God, grew up with that well-known dictum: “No Christian is greater than his prayer life.” His wide and effective ministry is due to the fact that he prays. God is at the center of his life. He is a God-intoxicated man. Only a man who prays could give us a good book on prayer. These pages ring true. This is because the person who penned them speaks of God’s power and presence in every personal conversation—in almost every sentence. Cleddie sees prayer as both a privilege and an opporunity. I once had a friend who saw prayer as work. It was a task at times, albeit enjoyable. But Cleddie’s praying is quite like Enoch’s, the seventh man from Adam. The Word says “he walked with God.” He knew the pleasure of God’s company. Communion was certainly no task for that saint of old. The Book of Hebrews tells us that Enoch’s “pleased God.” Cleddie sees prayer as both 13
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R pleasing to God and pleasurable to the praying person. He enjoys God. Still, for Cleddie prayer is more than a privilege. It is an opportunity to advance the Kingdom of Christ. It is the overthrowing and plundering of satan’s kingdom. How do we arrive at this kind of effective praying? How do we approach God? Cleddie provides a pracical and encouraging teaching on how we can go farther on our knees; farther than we’ve been before. Cleddie reminds us that everything you do for the Lord matters, especially prayer. Cleddie has listened to giants over the years. He has sat at the feet of great prayer warriors. The pages of his book are filled with poignant and inspirational quotations. But this is more than a good book on prayer. Cleddie opens to us his prayer life. His ministry ranges from the poor and broken in Houston’s East End, to wealthy business and political leaders. Prayer, like many of life’s untimate privilages, cannot easily be analyzed; however, you can see its results. The life of prayer Cleddie teaches is a life of purpose and results. No spiritual soldier should go out to war before reading this book. Robert Summers Dallas, Texas Prayer Mountain Mountain Creek Community Church
14
Introduction
T
he sun had just peeked above the horizon that Wednesday morning in Louisville, Kentucky as I stepped into the sanctuary of the Evangelical World Prayer Center where my dear friends Bob and Margaret Rodgers are the senior pastors. The lights in the building were low, but there was a heartwarming roar of intercession reverberating throughout the room like the sound of a jet prepping before takeoff. Several hundred believers had gathered for prayer that morning, and a tangible spirit of prayer was heavy upon us. It was easy to see why this church was known as the church that prayer built. In front of me, I noticed an associate pastor on the platform leading the congregation in one point of the Lord’s Prayer. My heart was deeply stirred by what I saw and heard. Intent worshippers gathered from throughout that region to pray at 6:00 am, hungry for a genuine manifestation of God. Their hearts were set on prayer revival. Ours must be as well. I believe that God is calling His Church to battle, and this means God is calling His Church to prayer. 15
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R Prayer must be passionate, and godly men of old knew this to be a truth. Professor Franklin Giddings loved to tell his sociology classes how, when he was a cub reporter, he had attended one of D.L. Moody’s revival services. He marched with hundreds of others into an after-meeting for prayer. Moody, suspecting his real purpose, pointed his finger at young Giddings and said, “Young man, leave this room. You are not here to pray.”1 Moody knew the value of prayer. In the last twenty years, I have seldom been to a church that does not participate in some form of “pattern praying.” What we call The Lord’s Prayer is often their weapon of choice. I have oftentimes joined with friends and family in praying The Lord’s Prayer and have repeatedly found it to be much like a mirror that reveals my innermost heart and motives. It is a great tragedy that so many in the Church do not really understand the magnitude and meaning of this wonderful prayer. This book intends to open up the windows and allow heaven’s light to fall upon this ancient prayer of our beloved Lord with the hope that you will be inspired—breathed upon by the Holy Spirit—and motivated to new dimensions of spiritual passion in your prayers. We know The Lord’s Prayer so well, but we know so little about it. We are sometimes guilty of Jesus’ very words when He warns His disciples of meaningless repetitions. As we repeat this prayer over and over again we run the risk of the words falling into the abyss of hollow insignificance. The Lord’s Prayer is rich in spiritual content and transcends our casual attempts at prayer in our times. John Reumann wrote these words in the introduction to the English translation of Joachim Jeremias’ little book on The Lord’s Prayer:
Word for word, few creations in all the history of literature have received so much attention, and probably no other prayer has wielded as much influence in the history of religious devotions. In part this is because it is 16
I NTRODUCTION the prayer, the only one, which the Lord of Christians, Jesus of Nazareth, enjoined on his disciples. Partly too, this prayer’s unique position results from incessant usage, in church and without, and for our awareness that somehow we have never plumbed its depths.2
IF
A
L ITTLE C HILD C OMES , AWAKEN M E
There is a story told of Francis Xavier, who on one occasion was at the point of complete exhaustion. In giving direction to his servant, he exclaimed, “I must sleep, or I shall die. No matter who comes, do not disturb me. I must sleep.” Hurrying to his tent, Xavier left his faithful servant to watch. In a little while, however, the servant saw Xavier’s face return at the tent’s door. His servant saw on his countenance a look of awe as though he had seen a vision. “I have made a mistake,” Xavier said. “If a little child comes, awaken me.” Xavier knew the importance of God’s Word. He must have remembered that in the Book of First Samuel, Eli the priest lay in his place when the child Samuel came calling. Xavier made it clear that he didn’t want to miss out on a divine appointment of that magnitude if it were ever to arise. It is my desire to see the next generation come calling as well. You see, the Bible tells us that the word of the Lord was rare in Eli’s days, and there was very little vision from God. Hence, can you possibly imagine how important Samuel, though a child, was to God? You see, God had found someone who could hear in Samuel. And, Eli was needed to bring clarity to this child. God chose to make a deposit in Samuel from which He would receive dividends at a later date. Therefore, if a little child comes, awaken me as well. I want to hear my Father’s voice, and I want to know how to communicate with Him. Praying The Lord’s Prayer is a step in that direction. 17
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R
L ORD , T EACH U S
TO
P RAY
“It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples’ ” (Luke 11:1). We are not sure which disciple made this request. It might have been Andrew, who was a disciple of John the Baptist before he left to follow Jesus. It was this personal request that occasioned the giving of The Lord’s Prayer. In the times of Jesus, certain religious groups such as the Pharisees, the Essenes, and others had certain customs in prayer. This disciple of Jesus wanted to be instructed by his master in the spiritual art of prayer. It was probably the hope of the disciple that this prayer would identify and bind together this little group who were known as the followers of Jesus. This simple request has been uttered thousands of times over the centuries as God’s people have sought more meaningful and spiritual ways to pray. Tired of the ritualism associated with church prayers, they have longed to be free to touch heaven. Parched by the sun of religiosity in their spiritual exercises, they have endeavored to find ways to communicate with God in such a way that will lift them into new dimensions of spiritual fellowship with God. Jesus would never turn down a request like this. He is attracted to such passionate and personal appeals on the part of His family. Looking deeply into the eyes of this disciple, He spoke to him and to the generations that would follow him. This prayer is His answer to the plea of all who have longed to know how to pray.
P RAY, T HEN ,
IN
T HIS WAY
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father is art in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” (Matt. 6:9). 18
I NTRODUCTION In His introduction to The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus instructs His disciples to pray in this manner or according to this pattern. The Master of prayer unlocks the door to His own private chambers and gives us a peek into how He prays and what matters most when one addresses the Father in prayer. Thomas Watson (1620-1686) was one of the most popular preachers in London during the Puritan era. His writings are marked with clarity, raciness, and spiritual richness. His greatest contribution to our times is his work on The Lord’s Prayer. Concerning this verse he wrote:
“After this manner:” that is, let all your petitions agree and symbolize with the things contained in The Lord’s Prayer; and well may we make all our prayers consonant and agreeable to this prayer. Tertullian calls it ‘a breviary and compendium of the gospel,’ it is like a heap of massive gold. The exactness of this prayer appears in the dignity of the Author. A piece of work has commendation from its artifices, and this prayer has commendation from its Author; it is The Lord’s Prayer. As the moral law was written with the finger of God, so this prayer was dropped from the lips of the Son of God.3 This prayer is a key to the passions of Christ, giving clues to His zeal for His Father and His compassion for men. There are certain similarities between The Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, for both address our relationship with God and our relationship with man. Jesus is not indicating that we pray this prayer in some kind of mystical or rote way, which is simply using routine or repetition without complete comprehension. In fact, He sets this prayer in contrast to the way that the Jews and Gentiles pray: 19
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words (Matt. 6:5,7). As His disciples pray in this manner they will avoid the traps of pious and “showbiz” praying that we often hear in church. He is leading them into the secret place to touch God in a way that they have never experienced before. So the warning is clear from the beginning. Don’t make this prayer like so many other prayers that become empty because they are not prayed with spiritual wisdom or fervor.
PARAPHRASE OF T HE L ORD ’ S P RAYER BY S T. F RANCIS OF A SSISI St. Francis was well known for his prayer, “Lord, make me an instrument.” St. Francis also regularly prayed The Lord’s Prayer; here is his paraphrased rendition of it. OUR FATHER most holy, our Creator and Redeemer, our Saviour and our Comforter. WHO ART IN HEAVEN in the angels and the saints, giving them light to know you, since you, Lord, are light; setting them afire to love you, since you, Lord, are love; dwelling in them 20
I NTRODUCTION and giving them fullness of joy, since you, Lord, are the supreme, eternal good, and all good comes from you. HALLOWED BE THY NAME, may we grow to know you better and better and so appreciate the extent of your favors, the scope of your promises, the sublimity of your majesty, and the profundity of your judgements. THY KINGDOM COME, so that you may reign in us by your grace, and bring us to your kingdom, where we shall see you clearly, love you perfectly and, happy in your company, enjoy you forever. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, so that we may love you with all our heart, by always having you in mind; with all our soul by always longing for you; with all our mind, by determining to seek your glory in everything; and with all our strength, of body and soul, by lovingly serving you alone. May we love our neighbors as ourselves, and encourage them all to love you, by bearing our share in the joys and sorrows of others, 21
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R while giving offence to no one. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may remember and appreciate how much He loved us, and everything he said and did and suffered. AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, in your immeasurable mercy, by virtue of the passion of your Son. AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US, and if we do not forgive perfectly, Lord, make us forgive perfectly, so that, for love of you, we may really forgive our enemies, and fervently pray to you for them, returning no one evil for evil, but trying to serve you in everyone. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, be it hidden or obvious, sudden or persistent. BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL, past, present or future, FOR THINE IS THE KINDOM AND THE GLORY FOREVER AND EVER. Amen.4 It is my prayer that as you read this book, you will able to pray The Lord’s Prayer with new meaning and greater zeal. I 22
I NTRODUCTION also pray that you will discover the world of success in God’s kingdom in regards to praying prayer patterns. I also hope that you will be stimulated to lead and teach others to do the same. Many have.
23
CHAPTER ONE
Men Ought Always to Pray
T
he year was 1971, and GayNell, my wife of five years, and I had just moved back to Houston, Texas. We had returned to Texas in order to work as an assistant pastor to Hardie Weathers. Hardie was a great man of God who had, at that time, become the spiritual father figure in my life. Houston was experiencing a growth boom at that time in unprecedented measure. Thirty thousand people a month were moving into the greater Houston area. I believe Providence saw to it that we would be located in the East End of Houston during those days. The very location and the cross-cultural pollination of that specific area would be an education in itself, an education that nothing else could ever replace in our lives. The Goliath of prejudice would have to be faced in a battle that was being waged in the shadows of the city. There was a stand-off of indifference toward the growing needs of a drugculture infested society. For the most part, the church had just simply turned its head and pretended that the problem was 25
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R not there. I guess they thought that if they ignored it long enough it would go away. The fast growth of the population made it almost impossible to hurry anywhere. There were no traffic loops to ease the congestion located throughout the city. What made matters worse was the fact that the city fathers did not have the forethought to build greatly needed bridges to get the ever-increasing traffic over railway intersections. You almost had to know the train schedule to get anywhere on time. Houston had become the largest city per square mile in the world. I could easily make nine hospital calls while traveling 150 miles in one day, without ever leaving the city limits. It was during this season that my burden for ministry was truly born. I knew I had been called into the ministry. I had served as an assistant pastor to my uncle in a rural church in Stafford, Texas. GayNell and I had even served in pastoral ministry to one church located on the campus of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and another located at the end of hundreds of miles of nothing in Uvalde, Texas. I would tell people in Uvalde that I was the pastor of the church in town; they would not believe me because they did not know the church was in town. It was not that Uvalde was so big; I think that at that time there was only one traffic light in the entire county. They were just unaware that it was around. GayNell and I laughed that it would have been good just for someone to stick their head in the door on a Sunday morning and shout, “Boo!”
A NOTHER L OVER E NTERS M Y L IFE Those first years were great. I was falling in love with another lover with whom my wife would have to share me for the rest of our lives. It was more than just an emotional attachment. My affection for her was evident to my wife. The other 26
M EN O UGHT A LWAYS
TO
P RAY
lover would take me away from my wife and family; my children would become jealous of her and even question, “Where is Daddy?” It was a precarious balance between my family and the other lover. We, of course, would have our differences but also times of intimacy and friendship. This lover would make demands that would require great blocks of time. I regret that I was too young to realize that some of the demands the other lover made on me were unreasonable. I just did not want to fail her any more than I would want to fail my wife. She deprived me of sleep and, over the years, to hear others tell it, she cost me my health to some degree. This is what one fellow told me when he said, “I make up the difference in what is lacking in my own body.” In other words, if she did not use her gifts I would just have to give a little more effort and time myself. The cost was physical well-being. What was even more difficult is this: She belonged to another. I remember the first time I realized I had fallen in love with her. It was a Sunday afternoon. A cool breeze blew across the bed through an open window where I was resting before I went back to spend a few hours with her. Have you ever told the Lord what you would or would not do? I have learned now that this is not necessarily the smartest thing a person can ever do. I knew of a man who told the Lord he would never go to a certain city, but by last accounts he died there some fifty years later. That afternoon I was giving the Lord my A-list of things that I would not be doing for Him, anytime in the near future or forever for that matter. Suddenly, His Word pierced my very being; the room was filled with His Word as much as it was filled with the breeze that blew through the window or the sunlight that lit up a room. His Word was as much in the room as I was; actually, it was more in the room than I was, and I was insignificant in regards to His Word that was filling the room. It was sharp and specific. It was more than someone 27
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R quoting a Bible verse and then you giving mental consent to the fact that you had read it or even knew the passage. It came to me in first person, “I loved the Church and gave Myself for it.” It was over—the love, His love, for another lover was sown into my heart like a seed in the earth. For forty years my wife has shared me with this other lover, which I hope you have concluded by now is His Church. The love affair continues, and it is not just a calling, it is a shared life, a relationship that demands great respect. Some have a difficult time sharing their spouses with the family of God, only because they have not yet understood what I experienced that afternoon in a moment of encounter: “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.” When we moved back to Houston to work with the East End Church, the city had changed. Every third or fourth license plate was from another state. The war in Vietnam was the big national news, and it seemed the world was one big protest. Everyone was crying for entitlements, demanding some kind of power. The drug culture had not gone away as the church had hoped. It had not only swallowed up our end of the town, but it grabbed hold of some of the young people in the youth ministry of our church. Unfortunately, I was locked into the religious box of what was expected of a young assistant pastor. Regardless of my surroundings, I was expected to be punctual and agreeable. One day I asked my pastor what I was to be called. “Am I your associate or your assistant?” His reply has never been forgotten. “What difference does it make?” Then he went on to say, “You abbreviate them both the same way.” I still laugh at my youthful arrogance when I think about it. The pastor explained that he had seen titles ruin some good men. I guess that is what happens to those who become legends in their own mind. 28
M EN O UGHT A LWAYS
TO
P RAY
There had been something of a historic restoration in the old Memorial Square in downtown Houston, which was only about three miles from where the church was located. A great number of tourists would often come to Allen’s Landing looking for the local nightlife. Allen’s Landing was rich with history, and local people knew it to be true. Two brothers named Allen ran a scam, selling acre lots of Houston to people in Chicago and New York City. They accomplished this feat by sending their carefully crafted sales posters to the adventurous and greedy out in these cities. Their posters showed Houston to be full of beautiful, cascading waterfalls with buffalo roaming in wide-open ranges when actually, the place was a swamp, and the only buffalo were the fish after which the local bayou was named.
W HEN
A
M OMENT B ECOMES
A
M OVEMENT
One late Saturday night, we were driving home from a dinner engagement and we circled the Old Allen’s Landing Memorial Square. We were in total amazement as we observed the thousands of people gathered there in a festive, “Mardi Gras” type atmosphere. People were honking the horns of their automobiles and hanging out of their car windows shouting at one another as though someone had just won a ball game. Young people were just hanging out, seemingly without purpose or direction. Many had packs on their backs looking for a place to crash for the night. We were left dumb and numb by this incredible sight. After some time, GayNell spoke up, breaking the silence. All she said was, “Somebody has to do something.” When she said these words, it was like the voice of God pierced my heart. I still feel it to this day. For us, the next five years were defined by what originated in her heart that night. Little did we know that God’s plan for our 29
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R lives was a direct result of that one defining moment. My heart began to burn with a passion for the youth of my generation. That moment became a movement in my life. I had to make a dramatic shift, moving away from a confining place of doing what was expected of me to a challenging place where I would do what I believe God wanted of me. A nomadic curse best describes where I was spiritually in my life before that day. The curse goes, “May you ever stand in one place.” I was consumed with being good and, honestly, I was not very good at that. But, where would I begin? I shared my concern with my pastor. He concluded that we must pray. As my father figure, he beautifully portrayed before me the example of a committed prayer life. I can still hear him say, “Some say that prayer is a duty. Prayer is not a duty. Prayer is a delight.” His plan was that he and I would each take our turn going to church to pray every other morning. He announced to the church that we would be there, and if they had prayer requests they could call them in and we would pray over them daily. In the meantime, we were also praying that God would show us what to do in regards to an outreach into the community—a community that was changing from an upper middle-class neighborhood to basically one of rental properties. Many were moving to the suburbs to escape the changing times. Of course, we all know that we only take our problems with us. The lives of their children remained problematic as well. With this outflow of people leaving the city, we were left to deal with all the problems and prospects of a newly born inner city of Houston.
P RAYING
THE
K INGDOM P RAYER
What I did not know was that, during this time, my pastor was secretly just teaching me how to pray. We began to pray, “Thy kingdom come in the East End of Houston as it is in 30
M EN O UGHT A LWAYS
TO
P RAY
heaven.” Nobody knew what we were praying about. It was top-secret, so to speak. I am not sure that we even knew what we were praying about, but God did. He had set our hearts to praying. At the end of the week, my pastor had a visit from an old friend who had known him as a young man. They lived in the same town many years before, and occasionally she would visit the church. She was moving to live with her daughter and son-in-law in another town and wanted to tell her old friend, my pastor, good-bye. The lady was twenty years or so his senior and God had been very good to her in life. I remember my pastor had great respect for her as a Christian. When he spoke of her, he spoke of her with dignity. I thought, “What a way to be known by others.” The lady was a spiritually-minded woman, and the Lord had told her to give her home (which consisted of a large house, a garage apartment situated above three garages, and a duplex) to the church. However, she had one stipulation. It must be used to work with the youth in the area. What was so wonderful about all this was the timing of her gift. It was the very thing for which we were praying! God heard us pray, “Thy kingdom come in the East End of Houston as it is in heaven.” Through her obedience to the Father and her act of love, Mrs. Jamison opened the door to a divine experience of God’s purposes and presence in our lives. These things would shape us for the remainder of a lifetime. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” jumped off the pages of the Bible and into our hearts. These words were not casually spoken from our lips. They absolutely were not religious rhetoric. With that prayer on our lips, we entered into an extraordinary life full of adventure, as the Lord began to use us to establish His kingdom in many different countries of the world. 31
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R Within a few weeks of receiving the woman’s exorbitant gift, a ministry was formed and began to function. Young people came to what we called Salt Inn Ministries. It was located on the corner of Brady and Marsden Streets, one block off Canal Street in the East End. It was as though we could feel a divine guidance that we had never experienced before. Each day, we could sense the hand of God leading us to pursue His will for our lives. We were marching to the tune of a different drummer. Then, one day we took a short cut by Jackson Junior High School as we headed toward church on a Sunday afternoon. Driving by a tall chain fence that surrounded the playing field, I noticed that the school looked so dark. I prayed a simple prayer, “Oh God, give me that school.” To my surprise, God spoke to me immediately. Deep down in my spirit, I heard him say, “Son, I have given you that school.” I turned and told my wife what had just happened. I said, “GayNell, God just spoke to me and said, “Son, I have given you that school.” She did not bat an eye. She was on God’s side in that situation. I was outnumbered and there was no place to run. She said, “Well, I guess you had better get busy then.” It was as though I was too naïve to know that I was “not supposed to” believe for something as great as that.
P RAYER —
THE
F IRE
OF
D ESIRE
I have learned over the years that there are different types of prayer and, occasionally, we each find ourselves praying differently about certain things in our lives. It helped me when I discovered that there are some nineteen different words in Hebrew and Greek that show the believer the different aspects of prayer. Prayer takes many forms as the words flow from our spirit towards heaven’s gates. 32
M EN O UGHT A LWAYS
TO
P RAY
Luke 11:1 says, “It happened that while Jesus was praying.” The word for prayer here is a Greek word, proseuchomai. This word is highly suggestive, implying that Jesus was praying with fervency and intensity. F.E. Marsh, speaking of the accounts of prayer in the Book of Acts, said that, “Behind all these instances of prayer is the fire of desire which moved those who were found in the act of prayer.” Jesus touched God’s heart with His prayers, and he taught His apostles how to do the same. Our prayers must be prayed with fire. E.M. Bounds put it this way, “It takes heat, and fervency and meteoric fire, to push through, to the upper heavens, where God dwells with His saints, in light.”1 James, the brother of Jesus, described in his book how Elijah was praying on Mt. Carmel, writing that Elijah was pleading with God that it would not rain. His prayer led God to put a stranglehold on the economy of a whole nation. Based upon that kind of praying James recorded, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16). The white-hot prayer of a righteous man will prevail every time. Yearning for results like Jesus and the godly men of old, Jesus’ disciples were hungry enough to ask Him to teach them to pray like He prayed. They had seen the passion and the power of His prayers, and they longed for that experience in their own lives.
P RAYING
AS
J ESUS P RAYED
“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety” (Heb. 5:7). These words from the Book of Hebrews indicate the force with which Jesus prayed. The Greek words used in this passage, ischuros and krauge, indicate that Jesus offered His 33
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R prayer with a strong and mighty outcry, an uproar of holy prayer. He was forceful, passionate, and powerful in His praying. His compelling and compassionate prayer was offered with a teardrop, as one commentator said. There is something riveting in the prayers of Jesus that grips our hearts and urges us to pray in similar fashion. Our prayers should be marked with the same kind of urgency. They should never be limited to simply parroting memorized prayers, or monotonously reading words from a prayer book. In the words of our Master, they should not be “meaningless repetitions.” Our prayers should be like those prayed by the early church as they interceded on behalf of Peter and John when they were locked up in the fourth ward of the prison. The power of their prayers shook heaven—and in return, heaven responded by shaking the earth. That night an earthquake rocked the old jailhouse and set the prisoners free. Let the Father come with His fullness into your life and through your fervent prayer so that He might rock your situation as well. When we engage ourselves in prayer, we must allow ourselves to feel the urgency of the moment as we let our spirit connect with heaven. In that collision between heaven and earth, as man’s spirit touches God’s Spirit, holy passion is born, powerful prayers are spoken, and God’s will is done.
P RAYER
IN THE
L IFE
OF
J ESUS
Before you can understand the meaning of The Lord’s Prayer, you have to understand the habit of the Lord as He gave Himself to prayer. Prayer was His life! It was not an addendum or an afterthought to His ministry. It was not what He did when all else failed or as something He turned to only in a time of crisis. Prayer was His strength, His joy, His very breath. Jesus began His public ministry in prayer, sustained it 34
M EN O UGHT A LWAYS
TO
P RAY
in prayer, modeled it in prayer, finished it in prayer, and now sits at the right hand of the Father, still praying for His own. S.D. Gordon best described the importance of prayer in the life of Jesus with these words from his classic, Quiet Talks on Prayer:
When God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man while more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life at every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed, as did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by gathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer? A habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, without a new decision of the mind each time it is done. Jesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It became to Him like breathing—involuntary.2 In the Gospels we get a clear picture of the praying Jesus. Fifteen different times the Gospel writers talk about His retreat to prayer. But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray (Luke 5:16). It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12). 35
P R A Y I N G T H E L O R D ’ S P R AY E R Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray (Luke 9:28). Jesus was not just a teacher of prayer. He prayed. His life modeled what He taught. It was this passion for prayer in the life of Jesus that motivated the disciples to ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus provides the passion and the pattern for all those who would learn to pray in a way that will open heaven’s door. It is called The Lord’s Prayer.
36